Wastebasket



Aug. 26, 1958 H. MEYER 2,849,177

' WASTEBASKET Filed May 13, 195'? INVENTOR. HOW/1RD MfYL-E United StatesPatent WASTEBASKET Howard Meyer, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Application May 13, 1957, Serial No. 658,689

1 Claim. (Cl. 232-431) This invention relates to a wastebasket and moreparticularly to a wastebasket adapted to fit between adjacent legs of adesk.

It is an object of this invention to provide a waste basket adapted tofit between the adjacent legs of a conventional desk having a pair oflegs to each side of the desk knee-hole.

It is a further objective of this invention to remove wastebaskets fromthe aisles where they take up valuable space and are an encumbrance towalking in the aisle.

It is a further object to provide a wastebasket adapted to prevent lossof accidentally dropped papers.

These and other objects will become apparent upon reading the followingdescriptive disclosure taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawing in which;

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of one modification of the wastebasketshowing in dotted outline the raised position of the front and the reardoor,

Fig. 2 is a side view broken away in part, of a modified wastebaskethaving a front door having a rear upright lip for engaging a transversedesk bar to prevent undue movement of the basket from under the desk,

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view of the front door axis of themodification of Fig. 2 and Fig. 4 is a detail view of the manner ofjournaling the front door axis to the front door.

The wastebasket of this invention is essentially a box having a somewhatrectangular shape and of a size to suitably fit underneath a deskbetween a pair of adjacent desk legs 11, shown in dotted outline in Fig.2, having a cross bar 13 between said desk legs 12.

The wastebasket 10 may be made of sheet metal, Wood, plastic, etc. andpreferably is provided with a semicircular front wall or a front wall 14having rounded corners.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the substantially rectangular wastebasket it)is provided with a rear rectangular cleanout door 15 secured by aconventional piano hinge 16 to top wall 17. The top wall 17 and bottomwall 18 (Fig. 2) are secured by welding or adhesive to the integralwrap-around vertical wall 19 of which the front wall 14 is an integralportion.

A feature of this invention is that the wraparound wall 19 is providedwith a suitable cut-out area so that the front wall 14 and a part of theside Wall adjacent each front wall corner is of lesser height by thelength of edge 20 than is the height of the wastebasket 19 as shown bythe height 21 of the rear door 15.

The piano hinge 16 is preferably a conventional springof top wall 17.The door 23 is provided with the curvatured configuration of front wall14 but as shown in Fig. 2 extends beyond the front wall 14 when inhorizontal position. Thus an accidentally dropped paper could not fallin the wastebasket 10. In fact even with the door disposed at aninclined angle the front edge of the door 23 does not extend rearwardlybehind the front wall 14 (Fig. 2 dotted door). Thus in use thewastebasket is pulled forward a suitable distance from underneath thedesk so that the basket protrudes in front of the desk at least thedistance of door 23. The hinge 24 is preferably not spring loaded sothat the door 23 raised to a suitable angle remains at this angle due tofriction. The door 23 is not depressable below the horizontal level(Fig. 1) due to the arresting effect of the conventional piano hingeused.

The wastebasket is preferably provided with buttons 27 to effect easysliding on the floor 28.

In emptying the wastebasket of Fig. l, the door 23 is grasped in onehand and the wastebasket is pulled out from underneath the deskwhereupon the rear door 15 is opened and the contents slide out due togravity.

A modified form of the wastebasket is shown in Figs. 2 to 4. In thismodification the front door 29 is provided with an axle 30 so that thefront door consists essentially of the door 23 and a rear integral platepiece 29X. Plate piece 29X is provided at its rear edge with an uprightwall 31 of a height suitable to engage desk transverse bar 13 when thedoor 29 is in horizontal position (Fig. 2).

Clearly the wastebasket of the modification of Fig. 2 has a shortenedtop wall 17X in front of which upright wall 31 may be disposed.

A preferred method of journaling axle 30 to front door 29 is shown inFigs. 3 and 4. In this modification the integral door 29 is providedwith a suitable center trough to receive axle 30 and a pair of opposedsuitable curvatured edge channels 32 for engaging axle 30 adjacent itsends.

The wrap-around wall of the modification shown in Fig. 2 is providedwith a pair of opposed suitably apertured upright lugs 33 to receivefrictionally the protruding axle ends 34.

Thus the axle 30 is frictionally fitted as by pushing into the aperturesof lugs 33.

The door 29 in use may be horizontally disposed with upright 31 engagingbar 13 so that the wastebasket can not be easily kicked or moved as bypulling from under the desk. Also the door 29 may be raised to anelevated position (Fig. 3) when in use, if so desired.

The cleaning out of this modification is done similarly to the mannerrecited above for cleaning out the modification of Fig. 1.

This invention has been described by means of two modifications butclearly other obvious modifications fall within the scope of theinventive concept.

The wastebasket provided is therefore substantially free from exposedsharp edges, easily emptied, mobile, safe in use as it prevents loss ofvaluable papers, and is of large capacity.

It may be made of aluminum sheet and may be provided with Wheels.Optionally the wastebasket may be placed in a desk drawer or on top ofthe desk if desired.

The front gate 29 is limited in its forward movement to a horizontalposition by stop block 35 secured to the inside surface of wrap-wall 19by adhesive or other conventional means.

I claim:

A substantially rectangular wastebasket adapted for use between the legsof an office desk consisting essentially of an integral substantiallyU-shaped vertical wall having a rounded front vertical wall segmentintegral with two opposed planar vertical wall segments, said front wallsegment and a portion of the side wall segments adjacent thereto beingof lesser vertical height than the remainder of the opposed side wallsforming a cut-out portion; alhorizontal top wall disposed in spacerelationship behind said cut-out portion and fixedly secured to the topedges of said opposed side walls, said side walls having opposed axlereceiving apertures between said cut-out portion and said top wall; .arear fiat wall hingedly secured throughout its length to the rear edgeof said top wall and adapted to close the opening of said U-shaped wall;a flat bottom wall secured to the entire bottom periphery ofv saidU-shaped wall; an axle disposed in said opposed apertures of said sidewalls; and a swingable door secured to said axle intermediate the frontedge and the rear edge of said door, said door References Cited in thefile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 525,616 Ostermeyer Sept. 4,1894 845,964 Mittendorf Mar. 5, 1907 933383 Bryant Sept. 14, 19092,399,038 Jones Apr. 23, 1946

